In his first spell at Kingston Park, Durham University graduate Walder played alongside the likes of Jonny Wilkinson, Jamie Noon, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood and Geoff Parling. Like him, they wore the red rose of England having learnt their trade in the North East.

So when Newcastle Falcons are playing for pride at home to Sale Sharks on Saturday, there is plenty up for grabs.

Their chief motivation will be the victory which will ensure they have won more Premiership games than they have lost at Kingston Park this season – something they have not been able to say since 2009. But they could take great satisfaction from defeat at Saracens last week – and not only because it secured their top-flight status for another 12 months.

Of the XV beaten 23-14 by the end-of-season table toppers, George McGuigan, Rob Vickers, Sean Robinson, Will Welch, Mark Wilson, Michael Young, Craig Willis, Chris Harris, Simon Hammersley and Alex Tait had all followed Walder’s path through the youth set-up. The 23-man squad contained 22 players qualified for England. It was a good leaving present to former Falcons man Rob Andrew as he steps down as the RFU’s professional rugby director.

“It’s something the club has always been keen on,” says 37-year-old Walder, who had spells with Wasps and Mitsubishi Dynaboars before returning to the North East to coach Percy Park. “We haven’t got the budget other clubs have but it’s something we’re very keen on.

“We think it’s a big carrot when we’re trying to encourage youngsters to join us that they’ll get their chance with the Falcons.

“In some of our European games we’ve had some pretty high numbers of academy graduates involved and it was great to go down to Saracens and have ten play against the best team in England and arguably Europe. For them to have played really well down there was a real positive, albeit they weren’t quite able to sustain it in the second half.”

With every year of the professional era, Premiership rugby union becomes more cosmopolitan. The new players who will join for next season include a Canada international (Evan Olmstead), a Fiji back (Verenki Goneva) and a former Australian Under-20 international (the English-qualified Harrison Orr).

Unsurprisingly, Walder emphasises the importance of staying true to their roots.

“I grew up supporting the (Newcastle United) football team and had a season ticket at St James’ Park for 20 years,” he points out. “The fans know people from the area will give everything for the cause and are a little bit more patient with them.

“Football’s gone in a slightly different direction now, but we’ve tried to keep going down that route. When it’s a straight choice between a guy who’s come through the ranks and a player who has come in from outside, if everything’s equal you’re more likely to go for the local guy or the academy graduate, because they’re aren’t always local, of course.”

“It’s tough to keep a home-grown feel to your squad nowadays but it depends on the model,” he argues. “We put a lot of pressure on (academy coach) James Ponton and (academy manager) Mark Laycock to produce players for us but Semore understands the system. You can’t rely on the academy to produce five guys ready to step into the first team every year without fail.

“You’re always looking to promote from within but you need to temper that with a mix of experience. We’re happy with the blend we’ve got.

“We’ve got a few guys at the moment who we think can be playing regular Premiership rugby in a year or two and we’ve got guys coming through at the moment like Tom Penny, Brett Connon and Craig Willis.”

Walder thinks Newcastle’s final league position – come what may it will be 11th – has slightly masked a promising season.

“We definitely didn’t hit the ground running but we never panicked because we knew we could win games,” he says. “The longer it went on, the more people from outside did, though.

“We got a few wins at the turn of the year then stumbled a little bit but we got ourselves out of a difficult situation by beating London Irish.

“The run before the Irish game was a little bit deceptive. There must have been five games this season we’ve lost by a kick.”